Teh_Kapten
11-01-2004, 07:58 PM
This is for all those who want to play Rifts in this forum but don't want to buy the book(s). Trust the information coming from me, I've been playing Rifts for almost six years and have suffered through reading 80% of their books (they have to have around 60 or more books that are Rifts related by now).
The first thing to note is that the entire point of Rifts is that it's open to everything. All you really need to know is the history and the current state of the world. Everything else you can fudge and it'd be fine so long as you don't god-mod or be a jerk about things.
The second thing, if you're playing it on here then you can throw the dice and the normal rules for Rifts out the window. You don't need to know how the number that shows how much mana you have left (I know Rifts calls Mana P.P.E.). You don't need to know the number of the damage you just did to that car when you shot it with your laser. If you want to know the rules and play it pen and paper style, then you do need to buy the base book at least, it's probably illegal for me to write all of that info here.
Now the history and setting:
Rifts takes place 300 years in the future, in a post-apocalyptic earth. The premise is that in 2100 peace comes to an end and nuclear war breaks out. Over 80% of the population is wiped out in less than a year. This is where the magic comes in.
According to Rifts and all Palladium games (Palladium Books is the company that makes Rifts) all living things have at least a small amount of Potential Psychic Energy (P.P.E. or Mana as other systems would call it). When you die, that small amount of P.P.E. gets doubled and leaks out into the world as a seperate force. Normally it's a far too small amount of energy to mean anything but when around 10 billion people or more die in less than a year (this is year 2100) then the amount of P.P.E. discharged into the world is staggering. And this is what does the real damage.
The energy clumps together and builds on itself, forming large, powerful, and very visible ley lines and nexuses (nexi?) of power. These nexi and ley lines rip holes in space, time, and dimensions, forming multiple bridges all over the world to anywhere, anytime, and/or any place. Everything you can imagine comes through those Rifts and goes into them. Aliens, monsters, demons, angels, deseases, plantlife, -everything-. This causes havoc everywhere on earth and the remaining humans clump together to try and survive. This lasts for about 100 years before things begin to calm down a little. These are called the dark ages.
Now things start to get a bit more organized. Humans find who they can trust and who they can't. Many humans ally against eachother, some ally with aliens, some ally against aliens. There are evil groups and good groups and some groups that are both at the same time. Magic has returned to Earth in full force and a number of people are studying it and even making schools for others to go and learn. The technology is still very good as some of the cities managed to survive the dark ages and the war, also a lot of alien technology helped. Psychics are numerous as well, and psychic abilities come in all flavours.
The game itself is set 100 years after the dark ages have ended. Certain powers are evident, some evil, some good, some neutral, some swing all ways, and all are desperate to survive.
The main powerful civilizations aren't very important. Many will disagree with me but really just use your imagination and make your own. I will list some of the major differences in Rifts Earth another time if I see people want more info. There's a number of different things that really make Rifts a great setting, some things that really can't be left out in a good description. I will get to those another time.
I hope that this clears up some things and answers some questions. Any more questions, ask here and I will answer them.
The first thing to note is that the entire point of Rifts is that it's open to everything. All you really need to know is the history and the current state of the world. Everything else you can fudge and it'd be fine so long as you don't god-mod or be a jerk about things.
The second thing, if you're playing it on here then you can throw the dice and the normal rules for Rifts out the window. You don't need to know how the number that shows how much mana you have left (I know Rifts calls Mana P.P.E.). You don't need to know the number of the damage you just did to that car when you shot it with your laser. If you want to know the rules and play it pen and paper style, then you do need to buy the base book at least, it's probably illegal for me to write all of that info here.
Now the history and setting:
Rifts takes place 300 years in the future, in a post-apocalyptic earth. The premise is that in 2100 peace comes to an end and nuclear war breaks out. Over 80% of the population is wiped out in less than a year. This is where the magic comes in.
According to Rifts and all Palladium games (Palladium Books is the company that makes Rifts) all living things have at least a small amount of Potential Psychic Energy (P.P.E. or Mana as other systems would call it). When you die, that small amount of P.P.E. gets doubled and leaks out into the world as a seperate force. Normally it's a far too small amount of energy to mean anything but when around 10 billion people or more die in less than a year (this is year 2100) then the amount of P.P.E. discharged into the world is staggering. And this is what does the real damage.
The energy clumps together and builds on itself, forming large, powerful, and very visible ley lines and nexuses (nexi?) of power. These nexi and ley lines rip holes in space, time, and dimensions, forming multiple bridges all over the world to anywhere, anytime, and/or any place. Everything you can imagine comes through those Rifts and goes into them. Aliens, monsters, demons, angels, deseases, plantlife, -everything-. This causes havoc everywhere on earth and the remaining humans clump together to try and survive. This lasts for about 100 years before things begin to calm down a little. These are called the dark ages.
Now things start to get a bit more organized. Humans find who they can trust and who they can't. Many humans ally against eachother, some ally with aliens, some ally against aliens. There are evil groups and good groups and some groups that are both at the same time. Magic has returned to Earth in full force and a number of people are studying it and even making schools for others to go and learn. The technology is still very good as some of the cities managed to survive the dark ages and the war, also a lot of alien technology helped. Psychics are numerous as well, and psychic abilities come in all flavours.
The game itself is set 100 years after the dark ages have ended. Certain powers are evident, some evil, some good, some neutral, some swing all ways, and all are desperate to survive.
The main powerful civilizations aren't very important. Many will disagree with me but really just use your imagination and make your own. I will list some of the major differences in Rifts Earth another time if I see people want more info. There's a number of different things that really make Rifts a great setting, some things that really can't be left out in a good description. I will get to those another time.
I hope that this clears up some things and answers some questions. Any more questions, ask here and I will answer them.